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GOODY TWO-SHOES
A FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION
OF THE
EDITION OF 1766
_WITH AN INTRODUCTION_
BY
CHARLES WELSH
GRIFFITH & FARRAN
_Successors to Newbery & Harris_
WEST CORNER OF ST PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, LONDON
1881
INTRODUCTION.
* * * * *
In _The London Chronicle_ for December 19--January 1, 1765--thefollowing advertisement appeared:--
"The Philosophers, Politicians, Necromancers, and the Learned in every Faculty are desired to observe that on the 1st of January, being New Year's Day (Oh, that we may all lead new Lives!), Mr Newbery intends to publish the following important volumes, bound and gilt, and hereby invites all his little friends who are good to call for them at the Bible and Sun, in St Paul's Churchyard: but those who are naughty are to have none.
"1. The Renowned History of Giles Gingerbread: a little boy who lived upon learning.
"2. The Easter Gift; or the way to be good; a book much wanted.
"3. The Whitsuntide Gift: or the way to be happy; a book very necessary for all families.
"4. The Valentine Gift: or how to behave with honour, integrity, and humanity: very useful with a Trading Nation.
"5. The Fairing: or a golden present for children. In which they can see all the fun of the fair, and at home be as happy as if they were there, a Book of great consequence to all whom it may concern.'
"We are also desired to give notice that there is in the Press, and speedily will be published either by subscription or otherwise, as the Public shall please to determine, The History of Little Goody Two Shoes, otherwise called Margery Two Shoes. Printed and sold at The Bible and Sun in St Paul's Churchyard, where may be had all Mr Newbery's little books for the children and youth of these kingdoms and the colonies. New Editions of those which were out of print are now republished.
"The publication of the Lilliputian System of Politics is postponed till the meeting of Parliament. This work, which will be replete with cuts and characters, is not intended to exalt or depress any particular country, to support the pride of any particular family, or to feed the folly of any particular party, but to stimulate the mind to virtue, to promote universal benevolence, to make mankind happy. Those who would know more of the matter may enquire of Mr Newbery."
This quaint and curious announcement, with its sly humour and seriousplayfulness, is characteristic of the house of John Newbery, in thelatter part of the last century; and there is no need to speak here ofthe fame of the books for children which he published; "thephilanthropic publisher of St Paul's Churchyard," as Goldsmith callshim, conferred inestimable benefits upon thousands of little folk, ofboth high and low estate. It is said of Southey when a child that
"The well-known publishers of "Goody Two Shoes," "Giles Gingerbread," and other such delectable histories, in sixpenny books for children, splendidly bound in the flowered and gilt Dutch paper of former days, sent him twenty such volumes, and laid the foundation of a love of books which grew with the child's growth, and did not cease even when the vacant mind and eye could only gaze in piteous, though blissful imbecility upon the things they loved."[A]
Many of these little books have been doubtless long since forgotten,though they did not deserve such a fate; but the name of "Goody TwoShoes" is still familiar to the ears of English children, though thebook itself may be unknown to thousands of little ones of this latergeneration.
"Goody Two Shoes" was published in April 1765, and few nursery bookshave had a wider circulation, or have retained their position so long.The number of editions that have been published both in England andAmerica is legion, and it has appeared in mutilated versions under theauspices of numerous publishing houses in London and the provinces,although of late years there have been no new issues. Even in 1802,Charles Lamb in writing to Coleridge, said--
""Goody Two Shoes" is almost out of print. Mrs Barbauld's stuff has banished all the old classics of the nursery, and the shopman at Newbery's hardly deigned to reach them off an old exploded corner of a shelf, when Mary asked for them. Mrs Barbauld's and Mrs Trimmer's nonsense lay in piles about. Knowledge, insignificant and vapid as Mrs Barbauld's books convey, it seems must come to a child in the shape of knowledge; and his empty noddle must be turned with conceit of his own powers when he has learnt that a horse is an animal, and Billy is better than a horse, and such like, instead of that beautiful interest in wild tales, which made the child a man, while all the time he suspected himself to be no bigger than a child. Science has succeeded to poetry no less in the little walks of children than with men. Is there no possibility of averting this sore evil? Think what you would have been now, if instead of being fed with tales and old wives' fables in childhood, you had been crammed with geography and natural history!
"Hang them!--I mean the cursed Barbauld crew, those blights and blasts of all that is human in man and child."[B]
There must, however, be many parents still living who remember thedelight that the little story gave them in their younger days, andthey will, no doubt, be pleased to see it once more in the form whichwas then so familiar to them. The children of to-day, too, will lookon it with some curiosity, on account of the fact that it is one ofthe oldest of our nursery tales, and amused and edified theirgrand-parents and great grand-parents when they were children, whilethey cannot fail to be attracted by its simple, pretty, andinteresting story.
* * * * *
The question of the authorship of the book is still an unsettled one.It was at one time commonly attributed to Oliver Goldsmith, and no onewho reads the book will consider it to be unworthy of the poet's pen.We find, however, in Nichol's Literary Anecdotes, that
"It is not perhaps generally known that to Mr Griffith Jones, and a brother of his, Mr Giles Jones, in conjunction with Mr John Newbery, the public are indebted for the origin of those numerous and popular little books for the amusement and instruction of children which have been ever since received with universal approbation. The Lilliputian histories of Goody Two Shoes, Giles Gingerbread, Tommy Trip, &c., &c., are remarkable proofs of the benevolent minds of the projectors of this plan of instruction, and respectable instances of the accommodation of superior talents to the feeble intellects of infantine felicity."
Mr Giles Jones was the grandfather of the late Mr Winter Jones,formerly the Principal Librarian of the British Museum, and the bookis attributed to the first-named gentleman in the catalogue of theBritish Museum. It is claimed also that the book offers internalevidence in support of Mr Giles Jones' authorship, inasmuch as GoodyTwo Shoes becomes Lady Jones, and one of the prominent families in thebook is also named Jones.
Beyond this, however, there appears to be no evidence as to Mr GilesJones being the writer, and I think something may be said as to theclaim on behalf of the poet Goldsmith, although I am by no meansanxious that the honour of having written it should be ascribed eitherto the one or to the other: the following remarks, which are mainlytaken from an article I contributed to the _Athenaeum_ in April1881, are offered simply as speculations which may not be withoutinterest to lovers of the little book. They may, perhaps, show thatthere is some reason for at
tributing the work to Oliver Goldsmith,although, of course, it is not claimed that they absolutely establishthe fact.
Having occasion to examine carefully as many of the books for childrenpublished by John Newbery as I could procure (and they are as scarceas blackberries in midwinter, for what among books has so brief a lifeas a nursery book?), I was struck while perusing them with a certaindistinct literary flavour, so to speak, which appeared to be common toa group of little volumes, all published about the same period. Thesewere: "Goody Two Shoes," "Giles Gingerbread," "Tom Thumb's Folio,""The Lilliputian Magazine," "The Lilliputian Masquerade," "The EasterGift," "A Pretty Plaything," "The Fairing," "Be Merry and Wise," "TheValentine's Gift," "Pretty Poems for the Amusement of Children ThreeFeet High," "A Pretty Book of Pictures," "Tom Telescope," and a fewothers. I give abbreviated titles only, but if space permitted I mouldlike to quote them in full; they are remarkable no less for theircurious quaintness and their clever ingenuity than for theirattractiveness to both parents (who, it must not be forgotten, aremore often the real buyers of children's books) and the young peoplefor whom they were written, and they are in themselves mostentertaining and amusing reading. This group of little bookspossesses, moreover, another characteristic that is sufficientlyremarkable of itself to be noticed. While they all evince a realgenius for writing in a style suited to the capacities of little folk,there is a nameless something about them which, far more than is thecase with thousands of other books for the young, is calculated toenforce the attention and excite the interest of "children of a largergrowth."
Now one of this little group, "The Lilliputian Magazine," isattributed in the British Museum Catalogue to Oliver Goldsmith; and sostrong is the family likeness in all the books I have mentioned, thatI cannot but believe they are all by the same hand--a belief which Ithink will be shared by any one who will take the trouble to comparethem carefully. But I should advise him to rely on the Newberyeditions alone, for grievously garbled versions of nearly every one ofthese books have been issued from many different houses throughout thecountry.
Many authorities have supported the view that Goldsmith was the authorof "Goody Two Shoes." Conspicuous among them was Washington Irving,who says, "It is suggested with great probability that he wrote for MrNewbery the famous nursery story of 'Goody Two Shoes.'" It is saidalso that William Godwin held this opinion; and I believe there isauthority for stating that the Misses Bewick, the daughters of thecelebrated engraver, who illustrated an edition of the book for T.Saint, of Newcastle, understood from their father that it was byOliver Goldsmith.
But let us turn to the book itself and see if it furnishes anyevidence on the point. The very title, with its quaint phrasing, showsno common genius, and as Washington Irving says, "bears the stamp ofhis [Goldsmith's] sly and playful humour." As the book was publishedin 1765, it would most likely have been written just at the time whenGoldsmith was working most industriously in the service of Newbery(1763-4), at which period it will be remembered that he was livingnear Newbery at Islington, and his publisher was paying for his boardand lodging.
Without, of course, claiming that similarity of idea in differentwritings necessarily betokens the same authorship, I think theparallels that are to be found in this little book, with many of thesentiments in Oliver Goldsmith's acknowledged work--to say nothing ofthe almost universally recognized likeness to Goldsmith's style thatis found in "Goody Two Shoes" may fairly be considered as throwingsome light upon the question.
The most striking of these parallels is perhaps that furnished by thecurious little political preface to the work--a preface which is quiteunnecessary to the book, and I think would only have been inserted byone who was full of the unjustnesses at which he was preparing to aima still heavier blow. In describing the parish of Mouldwell, wherelittle Margery was born, an exact picture is drawn of "The DesertedVillage," where
One only master grasps the whole domain And half a tillage tints thy smiling plain;
And where
---- the man of wealth and pride Takes up a space that many a poor supplied: Space for his lakes his park's extended bounds, Space for his horses, equipage, and hounds.
And by this and other tyrannies, and being also
Scourged by famine from the smiling land,
for he was "unfortunate in his business" at about the same time, SirTimothy accomplishes his aim, and
Indignant spurns the cottage from the green.
Ruined by this oppression, poor Mr Meanwell is turned out of doors,and flew to another parish for succour.
Where, then, ah! where shall poverty reside To 'scape the pressure of contiguous pride?
Sir Timothy, however, suffers for his injustice and wickedness, for"great part of the land lay untilled for some years, which was deemeda just reward for such diabolical proceedings."
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay.
Miss Charlotte Yonge, to whom I shall refer again, lays upon this: "Ifthe conjecture be true which attributes this tale to Oliver Goldsmith,we have seen the same spirit which prompted his poem of 'The DesertedVillage,' namely, indignation and dismay at the discouragement ofsmall holdings in the early part of the eighteenth century."[C]Indeed, it may well be that we have in this preface even a more truepicture of Lissoy than that given in the poem, which, as Mr WilliamBlack says in his monograph on Goldsmith, "is there seen through thesoftening and beautifying mist of years."
Much more might be said of the characteristics of this little book,which contains so much that reminds us not only of the style but thematter of many of Goldsmith's writings. Miss Yonge says: "There is acertain dry humour in some passages and a tenderness in others thatincline us much to the belief that it could come from no one else butthe writer of 'The Vicar of Wakefield' and 'The Deserted Village.'Indeed, we could almost imagine that Dr Primrose himself had describedthe panic at the supposed ghost in the church in the same tone as theride to church, the family portrait, or the gross of greenspectacles.'[D] We find in "Goody Two Shoes" every one of thosedistinctive qualities of Goldsmith's writings which Mr William Blackso well summarizes in the book already referred to--"his genuine andtender pathos, that never at any time verges on the affected ortheatrical;" his "quaint, delicate, delightful humour;" his "broaderhumour, that is not afraid to provoke the wholesome laughter ofmankind by dealing with common and familiar ways and manners and men;"his "choiceness of diction;" his "lightness and grace of touch, thatlend a charm even to" his "ordinary hack work."
* * * * *
The reprint which is here presented is a photographic facsimile ofthe earliest complete copy that we have been able to procure. Judgingfrom fragments of earlier editions in the possession of thepublishers, it would appear to be printed from exactly the same typesas the original issue of April 1765. The copy from which the reprintis made was kindly lent to the publishers by Mr Ernest HartleyColeridge, whose collection at the South Kensington Museum ofeighteenth century books for children is well known. The actual sizeof that book is 4 inches by 2-3/4, but it has been thought better toprint on somewhat larger paper. The original is bound in the oncefamiliar Dutch flowered and gilt pattern paper, and we had hoped topresent the reprint in a similar cover, but it was found impossible,as nothing like it could be procured, nor could the manufacturers ofthe present day exactly reproduce it.
[Footnote A: Essays from the _Times_. Robert Southey. By SamuelPhillips, pp. 168-169, vol. i.]
[Footnote B: _See_ "The Works of Charles Lamb." By PercyFitzgerald, M.A., F.S.A. Vol. 1. Page 420. London: E. Moxon & Co.,1876.]
[Footnote C: "A Storehouse of Stories," p. 69, First Series.]
[Footnote D: "A Storehouse of Stories," First Series, preface.]
Little Goody Two-Shoes.]
THE
HISTORY
OF
Little GOODY TWO-SHOES;
Otherwise called,
Mrs. MARGERY TWO-SHOES.
WITH
The Means by which she acquired her Learning and Wisdom, and inconsequence thereof her Estate; set forth at large for the Benefitof those,
_Who from a State of Rags and Care And having Shoes but half a Pair; Their Fortune and their Fame would fix, And gallop in a Coach and Six._
See the Original Manuscript in the _Vatican_ at _Rome_, andthe Cuts by _Michael Angelo_. Illustrated with the Comments ofour great modern Critics.
------------------------ The THIRD EDITION. ------------------------ _LONDON_:
Printed for J. NEWBERY, at the _Bible_ and _Sun_ in St._Paul's-Church-Yard,_ 1766. (Price Six-pence.)
TO ALL
Young Gentlemen and Ladies,
Who are good, or intend to be good,
This BOOK
Is inscribed by
Their old Friend
In St. Paul's Church-yard.
The Renowned
HISTORY
OF
Little GOODY TWO-SHOES,